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Heavy Snow Buries Midwest; Tom Brady Named Super Bowl MVP; Super Bowl Ads Trending Darker

Aired February 02, 2015 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO: Martin Savidge is in Cleveland this morning. Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

No record breaker here as far as snowfall that's for sure. But it is an absolutely brutal day and that's because of the extreme cold and the wind.

Let me show you something of real concern. The wind is bringing down power lines like these. This one is no longer charged so don't worry about it. But as a result, traffic signals in major downtown area in some cases are out. That means that humans, police officers, have to stand in this brutal element and deal with the cold as they try to deal with the traffic as well.

You've also got, you know, big drifts that have built up. This is a public square, the center of downtown Cleveland. Winds have been gusting 20, 30 miles an hour. Right now this is downright balmy compared to what we were dealing with around 5:00 this morning. But still wind chills below zero.

The snow has stopped. The sun has come out -- gorgeous. I mean it looks like somebody just sort of snow spray painted all the trees here. If you felt the wind and stinging that's coming on this side of me, you would have a different idea of this weather.

But so far all of the schools are canceled. The roads are still covered and treacherous. Most businesses have reduced their staff -- a lot of folks wisely staying home. Public transportation greatly delayed. Airports are open. Many flights delayed and canceled.

It's worse to the west -- a little assistance coming in here. How are you? Nice to see you. Stay safe. I get my own personal plow.

COSTELLO: Awesome.

SAVIDGE: They are making through as best they can, Carol.

COSTELLO: That's great. I like how you're looking at a glass --

SAVIDGE: -- I'm glad to see he's finally getting to it.

COSTELLO: Me too. Thank you Lake Erie for that lake-effect snow. Thanks, Martin Savidge. We appreciate it. They love Martin there. Let's shift our attention to the East Coast. New York is bracing for ice. New England another wallop of heavy snow and southern Connecticut -- it faces a treacherous combination of the two. So let's get the deal from there. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in -- are you in New London now -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. New London, Connecticut here got hit very, very hard in the last round of storms. They got 20 inches and now they are digging out from this one.

The number of plows running up and down the streets here are in the ten that we've seen so far just in the few minutes that we've been running around here. You can see it goes from slushy conditions to relatively good conditions to then hard packed snow conditions.

You can also see the amount of snow along the sides of the roads that they have to deal with here. The temperature has gone up about 28 degrees and we're right in that area between the ocean and the snow line where we have seen nothing but rain, frozen rain, ice, and some snow throughout the morning from about 5:00 a.m. on.

It is incredibly treacherous out there. As the temperature drops, which is supposed to drop a bit more this afternoon that's when things are going to get really interesting and dangerous out here. Right now the town of New London, Connecticut -- many areas of Connecticut digging out still.

Getting hit again right now we're in a bit of a reprieve from the rain and precipitation but we're expecting more this afternoon and people here are just getting ready for it -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Miguel Marquez reporting live from New London, Connecticut this morning.

Any moment now Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady will step on stage with his coach, Bill Belichick, to talk about their fourth Super Bowl win. When that happens, of course, we'll take it live. You might expect the champ to be all smiles just like he was in this tweet from the New England Patriots. It reads, quote, "This photo should sum up how you're feeling today." it's a cute picture.

Andy Scholes is live in Glendale, Arizona this morning. Good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey good morning, Carol.

What can you say about that Super Bowl other than it was just awesome? You know, we rarely get the Super Bowl where it comes down to the last play of the game but that's what we got yesterday. And the Patriots -- they deserve a lot of credit, you know. They had to deal with deflate-gate and all the distractions leading into the game.

But they played a great game and it made the big plays when it mattered the most. As we saw -- as we talked about all morning; the play by Malcolm Butler on that last player where the Seahawks for some reason decided not to run the ball from the one-yard line. What were they thinking? That's what every one's saying on Twitter. People are calling it the worst play for in the history of the NFL and it's going to be talked about all off season long (ph). The Seahawks fans are probably going to be talking about that. Until -- well, until the end of time. That's how bad a result people are saying it was -- Carol.

And for Tom Brady, you know, this is such a big win for him. If he would have lost, he would have dropped to 3 and 3 in Super Bowl. Now, he's foreign too and that forced Super Bowl is big. That puts him with his childhood idol Jo Montana and Terry Bradshaw. The only three quarter backs to win for a Super Bowl all time.

And Carol I have to -- I saw a great meme. I know how much you love memes. I saw a great meme earlier this morning. They're in the play in the game where the Darrell got burnt on a touchdown. Richard Sherman he went to the sidelines and he did this. He did 2-4 into the camera. Someone grabbed him doing the four -- Carol. And then they say just mean right here.

They say how many rings does Tom Brady have? I thought that was so clever when I saw that this morning.

COSTELLO: It really is good.

Although I really do think the New England Patriots MVP should be Pete Carroll but that's just my own personal opinion.

The tabloids here in New York are brutal to Tom Brady.

SCHOLES: Yes, I know -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I mean Look at this. How cheat it is. Just mean.

SAVIDGE: well, you know, until the NFL investigation is concluded with Ted Wells and we really find out what happened --

COSTELLO: Hey the presser is happening Andy. Roger Goodell is talking. Let's listen.

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: I understand it's the largest fourth quarter comeback in Super Bowl history so congratulations to both teams. Obviously in particular our Super Bowl champs, the New England Patriots.

As far as the fan reaction to the game, it was extraordinary. I'm sure you're aware of the fact it's the highest rated Super Bowl in history. Undoubtedly will be the most viewed Super Bowl particularly when you take all of the other metrics, the engagement and the new platforms that have developed obviously in media over the last several years.

It's an extraordinary engagement and interest from our fan level. I think every single one of the early indicators are that they have gone to record levels. Just on NFL media alone we saw a 40 percent increase last night. We think we'll see that across most platforms. So excited about all that. I would love to thank all of the people of Arizona for their hospitality. They did an incredible job here. Extraordinary planning and it all paid off. Everything went incredibly smoothly for our fans. We have had very little negatives and when you put an event on like this, that's really a tribute to our staff, to people here at Arizona, and we're proud of that and thankful it was the kind of event that everyone wanted to be a part of. And we, I think, delivered on that.

We're obviously thrilled to have the Patriots here this morning -- Coach Belichick and three-time MVP Tom Brady. Their fourth Super Bowl in 14 years. Extraordinary performance on behalf of the Patriots -- one of those games that demonstrated the resilience that makes the NFL special. Makes this team special.

So Tom Brady has demonstrated that over his career and just an extraordinary performer joining his boyhood idol, Joe Montana, as the only three-time Super Bowl MVP. Without further ado -- Tom.

Are we going to take pictures first?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick it up.

COSTELLO: All right. Andy Scholes, Roger Goodell crowing a little bit. 49 million people tuned into the Super Bowl last night -- crazy. Oh, let's listen -- sorry.

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: Obviously a great honor. I think there's a lot of people that are very deserving of this award and great game by our team. A lot of individual players played phenomenal. It was a real test for our team and I'm just honored to be up here. Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, I know it's relatively early on in the process, can you comment at all about where your place in the game might be after a fourth Super Bowl title?

BRADY: You know, I never thought much about that and I'm still kind of in the midst of my career. I just love the game. I love playing. I love representing our team.

All of the guys work really hard. It's a big commitment that a lot of players make to play this game and it's a lot of sacrifices and a lot of support from a lot of people that love you and support you. So probably the most gratifying thing is to win the game and then to celebrate with your teammates and your loved ones and we've been on the other end of this two times in the last seven years being ahead late in the game with a chance to win and not closing it out.

I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it. Like I said, it took a lot of -- coach talked all week about how it would take all 60 minutes and it certainly did. We never broke our wheel. We were down ten in the fourth quarter. And you know, Beijing on the 1 yard line with 20 seconds left but the guys never gave up. You fight to the end and great things happen

So it was great for our fans, great for the people that support us and just really proud of our accomplishment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, just wondering if you can take us through the fourth quarter drives and what you saw that was maybe different from the third quarter. And my second question is how much longer can you keep doing this?

BRADY: Well, I love doing it so I don't want it to end any time soon. You know, a lot of decisions that I make in my life are about how to, you know, sustain it. And you know, it takes a commitment in and of itself. You have to put it in the bank as coach always says and it's there when you need it.

The fourth quarter, you know, I thought we did great job moving the ball. I made a few pretty stupid throws to really kind of get our team in the hole and we lost points on the first drive. Gave them a touchdown there and to start the third quarter.

So that wasn't the way we talked about the game going. I thought we had a great plan. Coaches work so hard to get us players prepared. We had two great weeks of practice and it paid off.

It shows up in the biggest games and we've had a lot of clutch performers on our team. We've shown that all year. We've dealt with a lot of adversity from the start of the year all the way on through the end. It was just great to be able to finish it out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, you win three times in four years and then you go ten years without winning, does it give you a greater appreciation of how tough the process is to actually win one of these things?

BRADY: Yes. You know absolutely. I was a young kid when we won those first three. Almost in '04 after we beat the Eagles, I was like -- I'm ready for this to be over. Getting the off-season start? And just because we had experienced it and obviously with the perspective that I've gained, it's a hard thing to get here and then it's a hard thing to win the game.

Playing against the other best team and, you know, obviously one play here or one play there and all things changed and we've been on the other end of that too. So I'm just -- I'm proud that we got a chance to really finish it out and some guys made huge plays at the end. They made a phenomenal catch to get to the five yard line.

Marshawn had great run until he gets the one and a half. and we came up with, obviously to play the game that Malcolm made. He's been doing it to me in practice all season so it was actually nice to see him pick somebody else off. I'm so happy for him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom, congratulations. After that Kansas City game, could you ever imagine that we would be here in this scenario and what did it take to turn the season around?

BRADY: Yes. Well, after that particular game, you know, I don't think you think that far in advance. We focused on the process of building our team and I think so much of what has made our team special is the discipline, the hard work, the situational football.

You know, Coach grinds us pretty hard every day. The expectations are high every day. You just can't go out there and run around and break a sweat and think that you're doing anything. You have to get the work done and you have to do it the right way.

I know we didn't start the year great. 2-2 is not bad all things considered. I thought we had a lot of belief in one another and belief we had a great training camp. We had a great off-season, and we went into those games believing that we could win -- it didn't turn out that way.

You know, that's life. And you have to fight through it and there's nobody that could have changed what we were doing except the guys in our locker room and we believed in one another. That was the most important thing. I'd like to say we got a lot of support from our family and friends along the way. And here we are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Tom. Julian obviously made the big catch but have about 10 minutes to go. You take this huge hit. Were you concerned at all that he would be able to come back, especially given that he missed a couple games with concussions earlier in the season? Was that ever a concern of yours?

BRADY: Yes, he took a big hit. I thought obviously one of the other big plays of the game we were backed up third and long and he found a way to run a great route on an in-cut and I put it on him and cam, who is a big safety, laid a good shot on him. He got up and kept running. Obviously they ruled him down, but it was a huge hit.

You know, for a guy that started as a college quarterback, went to junior college in San Mateo where I grew up and grew up in the same area and to see what he's accomplished in his career to go from punt starter to fund returners for team. We tried to work his way up the depth chart and got an opportunity last year and took advantage of it and had really put the work in over the course of his entire career.

It speaks to him and his work ethic. His upbringing. His character. What he's all about. So it's just a phenomenal player who played obviously the game of his life and biggest game of his career. We had a great time last night celebrating talking about it. It's great to see it and I'm just real proud of him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tom, given the record setting performance that you had last night, I'm just curious how you feel the findings of the investigation into the footballs of the AFC championship game should reflect on your legacy?

BRADY: Well, I'm just -- you know, I haven't had much thought into that. We've just been focusing on our game and I'm sure all that stuff will take care of itself over the next however long it takes.

It was a great accomplishment by our team. Last night it was a great victory. We should all be proud. We get too to a parade and celebrate and that will be a lot of fun. We haven't had one of those in a long time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Tom. Congratulations. When Chris made that

juggling catch, were you having Tyree flashbacks?

BRADY: Yes, I mean I kind of turned away. I saw Malcolm make a great play and he tipped it. I turned my head and then the guy got up and started running. What happened? I saw the review and couldn't believe it.

You know, I felt like we were going to win the whole game and then they made that catch. And then I had a little bit of doubt. And then we made a great play. Like I said, we've been on the other end of some great catches and not being able to finish it out and this time we made the play so there was no fight. Nobody lost confidence obviously on defense. There was a lot of fight that the team had. It took a 60-minute game and it took 99 yards on the football field to hold them and we did it. It's a great feeling.

Tom, you're known as a stoic competitor --

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to jump out of this presser but as you can see Tom Brady standing victorious after his big MVP win. I have to say though, Andy, he sounds really bad like his cold got worse.

SCHOLES: That's what a night of partying will do to a cold, Carol, when you don't go to sleep and stay up all night having a good old time I'm sure that's what you end up sounding like if you have a cold.

I have one note for you. The NFL network is reporting this morning that the Patriots still plan on to fly back to Boston later tonight and getting in around 6:00 p.m. Eastern and they do plan on having a parade tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. I'm guessing that is all based on the weather conditions and how they unfold later on this afternoon. From what I understand, it's not very pleasant in Boston right now.

COSTELLO: No, it's not very pleasant but I'm telling you those people know how to handle snow. I wouldn't be surprised if the celebration went on. We'll just have to see.

SCHOLES: Liquid courage.

COSTELLO: Liquid courage -- that's right. Nothing like it, right?

110 million people watched the Super Bowl. Not 49 million. I way underestimated that. 110 million people -- a record. Up 4 percent from last Super Bowl. Andy Scholes, thanks so much. I'll be right back.

SCHOLES: All right. You're welcome.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Epic snow in Chicago -- 19.3 inches of snow. That lands the storm on the top five list of all-time. You can see it there. The number five spot. With numbers like that as you can imagine, parts of the city at a standstill. Ryan Young is in Chicago this morning. Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. We've been watching people dig out and in fact some of the activity is still behind us. If you look back here, you can see some of the landscape. People trying to dig out their cars.

I can tell you we just met this young lady over here. Her name is Ariel She was trying to get her car into that spot. We tried to help push her into that spot but unfortunately her car has lost traction. You can see the car right behind that one. Someone actually hit that one.

We're hearing across Chicago there are side roads like this one that haven't been cleared just yet. There have been car fires. There have been people who lost power. The good news is in this neighborhood, they have power.

If you look back in this direction as you walk this way, this is a schoolhouse that's closed today because there's no school today. If you look back here, everyone is clearing out.

The great news here Carol -- is sun is out. It's starting warming up. It's not as brutally cold as it was early this morning. You see the effects of all this snow. 19 inches. Everyone saying we're from Chicago. We can handle this. You can see it's going to be a lot of work ahead.

COSTELLO: Ryan, I know that you're originally from Miami and you spent the last years in Atlanta and you're new to CNN and the first thing we send you to is this brutally cold snowstorm. I feel for you this morning, Buddy, I do.

YOUNG: It's a blizzard. I've never even shoveled snow before yesterday. So we were able to do that. The crew here has been fantastic. In fact talking to the people here in Chicago, they say they are just taking it in stride and glad they have power.

COSTELLO: Glass half full -- right. Ryan Young, thanks so much.

YOUNG: Definitely.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Cleveland Browns fans, you are not going to like this. It concerns Johnny Manziel. Johnny Football, the big bust of a rookie last year. I'm just going to read it to you because I just got this in to CNN. The Cleveland Browns confirmed to CNN Sports that quarterback Johnny Manziel entered a treatment program on Wednesday.

The Browns said in their statement, "On behalf of Brad Beckwith" a family friend and adviser to Manziel said that Johnny knows there are areas he needs to improve on to help him be a better family member. I'm just going to read you the whole statement -- it's below. This is from Brad Beckwith, here's a friend and adviser to Manziel and his family. Johnny knows there are areas he needs to improve on to help him be a better family member, friend and teammate so he decided to take this step in his life during the off-season. On behalf of Johnny and his family, we're asking for privacy until he rejoins the team in Cleveland."

Now he's not being specific about what kind of treatment center that Johnny Manziel has entered. Of course we'll keep digging deeper into this story. Again, Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel, checking himself into some sort of treatment center so he can become a better man. All right.

Let's talk about last night's big football game and the ads. The ads were a bit darker this year. You probably noticed that. Nissan tugged at the heartstrings with a commercial about a dad who didn't get to spend a lot of time with his son set to the tear jerker "Cats of the Cradle" and then the nationwide ad where the little boy died. Let's bring in Brian Stelter who's our senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES". So why so dark this year?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This like is the state of union for advertising Carol and maybe advertisers were feeling a little bit glum. -- You know, it was $4.5 million to get 30 seconds of ad time and they spent it in ways that were very unusual.

We didn't see a lot of booze filled sex soaked dads. We saw a Coca- Cola. One of my favorite sort of commercial that tried to rebuke Internet haters and suggested they be happy and positive online, instead.

I bought that's going to happen. I think it was a well received ad. That nationwide ad was the strangest one though -- this dead child talking about the dangers around the house. Nationwide got a lot of criticism online. But you know what -- on Twitter it was one of the most talked about ads right alongside Budweiser. Whether well received or not, people are talking about it and for advertisers that's sometimes the main thing they want after the Super Bowl, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. Well, it certainly got a lot of people talking. I'm not sure in the right way but it got a lot of people talking.

STELTER: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Brian Stelter pp

Stelter: Might be one of those all press is good press things.

COSTELLO: Maybe so. We'll see. Sorry we don't have more time. I had to get that Johnny Manziel news in there.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. The next hour of NEWSROOM starts now.